Computers Are Just a Tool
They are there when you need them. They get the job done (very) well. They look sleek
You put them away when you want to connect. Be present. Listen. Engage. Relate
They do not ask for attention. They do not desire attention. Would a wrench ask you how your day went? Would your calculator? Why should your “AI problem solver”?
Internet 1.0 was a bubble. Nasdaq IPOs liquidating in 6 months. Some cool things were discovered and built in the aftermath, including Alphabet’s theory of management
Internet 2.0 was a stretched out disaster. Engagement farming. Addiction loops built using dark patterns to capture your spend. Venture deployed to sales and marketing not R&D.
Popularized by: Facebook Zynga Slack a16z New Twitter (not old twitter)
Internet 3.0 whispered decentralization but became a centrally controlled casino. Crypto, kalshi, polymarket. Why run GPUs on CNG to validate your bet’s outcome when you can gamble on zero carbon? Innovation! They didn’t even try to hide it, a16z bragged about dumping on Indonesian retail investors on the All in Pod. Then bought off an election to avoid SEC intervention (remember Sarbanes Oxley?)
Venture is the house of the internet. The house always wins. Some win. Some lose. And society is left devoid of arts, culture, and human connection.
Profiteers leveraged algorithms to hold you from the actual relationship you want with technology. Ash Kechem’s Pokédex helped him understand the world. It didn’t pull him out of it.
Internet 4.0 is another bubble. This time with autonomous guns and democratic backsliding. The overpromises and debts are now feeding off sycophancy and dark patterns - bringing out the worst of us.
When 83% of America doesn’t trust AI, we should stop to ask WHY. It’s not because people hate wrenches or calculators or synthesizers. It’s because they hate calculators that are designed like a slot machine.
Computers should be a tool. That’s there with you. That you trust. That you keep by your side when you might need it. It’s not just one tool, it’s a multitool. With new tools added every day.
Venture capital is surely to blame. The big boys on wall street too (kudos to Dalio for catching the K-shape regression 5 years before Fink did).
Probably Yale’s (non-diversified) endowment return in the peak era tipped the scales, which made every other large pool of capital think they could match that performance. Fund managers overpromised (none of them had much prior experience, and some were just greedy). Which dragged venture capital (20%+ IRR) into the territory that used to be called “private equity” (10-15% IRR). But when the IRRs don’t add up 10 years later, everyone squeezes the user to extract what they feel they should have gotten. Not willing to accept that it was a bad bet and that diversification of assets is sound financial advice.
Let’s build Internet 5.0 together. We don’t need to wait until the aftermath of the bubble, we can start now.
Let’s build an internet we don’t hate. An internet that supports and fulfills us IRL (as best as possible, given the difficulties of travel and immigration and visas).
An internet that is authentic. And human. An internet that lets us choose to wield AI as a magical powerful special omnipotent multitool. Like Ash’s Pokédex.